Writers as Witness 2019
Writers as Witness :
Reporting an America in Crisis
A Collaboration between Scuppernong Books,
Greensboro Bound, and PEN America
Traditional journalism is under attack across the country. Economic forces are closing more and more print and digital new sources, while non-news sources proliferate. Political figures regularly decry established news sources as ‘fake news’ and call out individual reporters. Cancel culture threatens to limit discussion of sensitive topics. In fact, the very concept of traditional journalism is shifting rapidly, morphing to a new media landscape.
Scuppernong Books is working in conjunction with PEN America and Greensboro Bound to present Writers as Witness in the Fall of 2019.
How is journalism done and how does it affect our community and our country? What are our responsibilities as media consumers? What is unbiased journalism? What are the limits of free speech? What are the current threats (economic, cultural, and political) to free journalistic expression in the US?
The Writers as Witness series seeks to explore the ways in which writers—be they journalists, poets, memoirists, or fiction writers—engage and elaborate our current cultural moment in America.
Wednesday, September 18 7:30pm
Scuppernong Books
Working a Broad Beat: Regional and Freelance Journalism
Thursday, October 3, 7pm
Scuppernong Books
Keynote Event
Dennis Johnson, Melville House Publishing, The Mueller Report
Wednesday, October 23 7pm
Scuppernong Books
Thursday, December 5 7pm
Scuppernong Books
PEN America Media Literacy Workshop
Date TBA
Free Speech in a Time of Hate Speech
Date TBA